I recently picked up a nice used index bracket for my '68 390GT project. It was advertised as, and appears to be, an original bracket. There is an impression in the metal where it was mounted to the pump, so it is used even if not original. One of the "fork tines" that guides the steering hose had a chamfer on the outside, but it didn't look like damage or an intentional modification, so I decided to do a little investigation.
The edge of the chamfer does not have any burrs or tooling marks that would suggest modification. The curvature of the chamfered face is consistent with it being present prior to forming the "rail". See IMG_099b.jpg.
Photos of a used bracket on the WCCC web site (The "C8OZ" photos) show this same chamfer. Not much data go on, but two brackets with the same feature is highly coincidental. (Iam Fleming said in one of the James Bond novels: "once in happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.")
Looking at my bracket and the WCCC bracket, I noticed another section of rail on both that appeared deliberately unformed. See photo IMG_0097b.jpg. The intent seems to be to allow the bracket to slip into place over the pump outlet fitting when the nut is present.
For comparison, see the last photo. This photo is from the Semo website showing the reproduction bracket they are currently offering. Note the fully-formed rail in both locations. There is one other minor sifference - where the rail on the tine opposite of the chamfered one ends, the repro bracket rail does not blend the rail into the triangular web. The two suspected original brackets are blended. The blend can be seen out-of focus in photo IMG_099b.jpg. In all other respects the repro bracket seems to be quite faithful to the original.
I have a few questions.
- Are my bracket and the WCCC bracket truly originals?
- Were there different versions of the bracket from different suppliers or time periods that would account for changes in these details?
- Does anyone else have photos of original brackets that they can share?
